Located at the intersection of San Francisco’s Union Square and Theater districts, the Downtown Center Garage is a nine-level, reinforced-concrete parking structure containing approximately 1,000 stalls on 11 levels. Pairs of circular, spiral ramps extend up from the basement to the roof at the southeast corner of the building. The concrete slabs and walls bear the impressions of plywood board forms and the columns of the Sono-tube forms used to create them. The circular ramps are expressed on the exterior of the building as curved and slightly inclined slabs that spiral upward, helix-like, toward the roof. Thin, tubular steel railings wrap around the perimeter of the slabs, providing protection to users as well as a modern decorative motif.

The Downtown Center Garage was constructed at a time when the car was becoming a modern necessity. According to an article in the Architect & Engineer (April 1955), planning studies completed as part of this project indicated that most motorists preferred to park their own vehicle rather than valets. The building was constructed just west of Union Square, augmenting the Union Square Parking Garage. As originally designed the Downtown Center Garage contained 1,200 parking stalls. The only non-parking uses included the lobby and checking stations along the north wall of the building and a service area located on the first floor. The retail storefronts appear to have been inserted sometime in the 1980s.

The thin stacked slabs and the spiral, double-helix-like ramps at the southeast corner of the building. Also note the original neon blade signs and original entrance materials at 325 Mason Street. Some original finishes can be seen in the entrance lobby as well.

The Downtown Center Garage stands out from its dense urban surroundings by virtue of its machine-age materials and aesthetics. Its sinewy concrete ramps and slabs, outlined by metal pipe railings, add lightness and grace to a building type typically characterized by brooding dark concrete and a devotion to utility alone. Architectural critic Mitchell Schwarzer says this about the building: “The curve introduced by the spiral ramp adds enough movement to take the composition from simplicity to sublimity.”

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